Il Destino  Das Schicksal
by pfirsichkind
Summary: But Feliciano had jumped into his life, stubbornly clinging to the German, following him wherever he went. Maybe it was fate. Fate like that  day, the day they had met.


**Il Destino – Das Schicksal**

_He was barely able to breath. The dust made his eyes tear up. The Holy Roman Empire swallowed hard - this war already lasted for too long._

_Slowly he struggled forward, his little body covered with countless wounds, but he wouldn't give up, he couldn't give up. He made a promise. He would see her again. "Italy" - his hoarse voice whispered the name, it echoed in his head, like it would give him hold, like it was the only thing that made him going on._

_They would meet again - for sure.

* * *

_

Ludwig woke up with a loud gasp and a terrible pain in his head. A strange noise, something between a moan and a yelp tingled out of his mouth. Next to him a body shifted, groaning quietly. "West, what the fuck-"

He waved it of with one hand and swung his legs out of the bed. Slowly and shaking he made it out of the room into the kitchen. The cold tiles under his bare feet and the silent ticking of the cuckoo clock made him kind of calm down. He rested his aching head against the frozen pane. It was snowing outside. It snowed since a week now and they could barely survive. The Allies had cut everything, even the amount of food for them. He could recognize this in his head aches and weak body. His joints felt like they were full of sand and his eyes were small and burning.

But back to his dream. It was a dream which he dreamt kind of often since _that _day of fate. He could barely remember how Francis, Arthur and Alfred had been ranting about what to do with the German brothers. All he could think of was the frail boy who kept himself in the background, just nodding once in a while, finally signing the treaty with the others. He had asked Gilbert about him but he had just told him that that boy was North Italy, who had an elder brother South Italy – nobody to really think of because that kid was all the opposite of Ludwig. Small, frightened, weak. Nothing to associate with.

Still, North Italy – or Feliciano kept moving around in his head.

And then those – _creepy_ – dreams had started. He didn't know who this blond boy was, just that he looked very much like himself. And he talked about _Italy_…

And the next time they had been meeting with the allies, there was the Italian again. And with every look the nation gave Ludwig, he gained the strange feeling that he knew this person.

The sound of footsteps interrupted his thoughts and he turned around to see his brother padding into the kitchen, turning on the tap to drink some water. He frowned.

"Don't look at me like that. West, they won't take the _water_ away, so let the mighty state of Prussia still his thirsty."

Ludwig only snorted and returned his head to the pane.

Gilbert sauntered next to him. "Having bad dreams again?"

He grunted. "Ja."

"Come on, it's cold here. I let you take half of the bed if you want to."

"How wonderful of you, oh dearest brother."

"I know, I know…"

They returned into the small room and Ludwig couldn't help but open one of the windows due to the thick and heavy air in the room – against all of Gilbert's complains. (_I'm going to freeze my ass off and my fucking balls, too! Oh how they can fuck, y'kow!)_

But sleep wasn't coming over him again so he listened to the more or less silent snoring sounds of his elder brother.

Years were gone into the land and with every year Ludwig had learned more about the world and about himself. He was now strong enough to let go of the help Gilbert had given him until then. And he had made his own allies – even though the Prussian had laughed at him about his choice. The small, weak and lazy North Italy and the almost too polite, prudish and stiff (even worse than himself) Japanese Empire.

But Feliciano had jumped into his life, stubbornly clinging to the German, following him wherever he went. Maybe it was fate. Fate like _that_ day, the day they had met.

* * *

More years followed.

More pain with them.

More people who died.

And more sorrow for Germany.

Another day of fate had followed.

All he could remember was the weak, but still existing smile on the Italian face.

_"__Io vado. Arrivederci."_

After that everything had gone black.

* * *

A sharp knock on the door made him jerk up. It seemed like he had fallen asleep upon his apparently still unfinished work. He groaned. It felt good to be one again without that thick wall cutting through his country and separating him from his brother – but the latter made no intentions to help him now they were united again. (_Your fault, West. You wanted to rule this country by yourself and dissolve my state, so please do it now. I don't think of doing all this boring paper shit, I was born for fights and wars, you know, the real stuff.) _

And so he found himself surrounded by knee-high piles of paper work.

It knocked again and he tried to adjust his tie and rearrange his hair style while shouting "Herein!"

The door opened and his brother stuck his head through. "There's a visitor for you, West."

"Alright, who is it?"

Gilbert turned to the probably next to him standing person, then he looked at Ludwig again.

"Uhm, he doesn't want to say his name because he's afraid you won't let him in…"

Ludwig frowned. "If it's Francis, tell him to run back to his frogs as fast as he can. I don't need another head ache because of his wine and a curious Frau Merkel who wants to know where the marks on my neck come from." He shuddered at the memory.

"Uhm, no, it isn't Francis", his brother answered a bit too serious.

Ludwig sighed. "Then let him come in."

Gilbert nodded and headed back to his couch, beer and action movie.

Ludwig waited for the person to enter but strangely nobody did.

"Gilbert!", he barked immediately, "if you want to play one of your stupid jokes on me-"

But he was cut off the next second when a very nervous Italian entered.

"No, no, Ludwig, sono io!"

Ludwig gasped. His heart began pounding very fast and he felt cold sweet on his forehead.

"Feliciano…"

"Si."

The Italian nodded and stayed where he was, not daring to look at the German.

Ludwig cleared his throat and began to order the files on his desk. "W-what do you want, Feliciano?"

"It's just, that…"

He took one pile of paper and knocked it against the table in order to adjust the pages perfectly.

"I wanted you to know, that…"

He went to the window and opened it because it was suddenly really warm in the room.

"I love you."

He nodded and took one of the plants standing on the sill to remove it and open the window properly.

He placed it upon his desk and turned around to the-

Wait. What. _What_. WHAT?

"C-come again?"

"I love you. Or should I say 'Ich liebe dich'? Although I think 'Ti amo' sounds better."

Ludwig gasped. Again.

He remained still, body turned to the window, one head slightly raised.

Feliciano chewed on his bottom lip.

"Ve, you know, I was so afraid you might hate me because of, of, of, of _that _day and then you lost the war and then your boss committed suicide and the Allies kept you in hold and my brother did the same with me and then you and Prussia were separated and then you had a lot of work and then there's was this Wall and I was so afraid that you blame me and you had such a lot of work to do and I was really really afraid because I have seen Ludwig been angry and I didn't wanted so see him very very very angry against me because I was afraid of the war and then afraid of meeting Ludwig and fratello didn't let me go to stupid potato head, although I don't Ludwig is a potato head, Ludwig is really smart and handsome and pretty muscular but a potato is squashy and can't think because it's just a plant and it's not really beautiful because it's so knobbly-"

"Stop it!", Ludwig yelled and Feliciano shrieked immediately and covered his face.

"Does Ludwig hate me now?", he whined.

Ludwig's face softened and turned around to the other. "No."

The Italian blinked at him, surprised. "Really not?"

"No. Not at all."

"That's good!", Feliciano beamed at him. In the next second the smaller man was around the other, hugging him like he used to.

"Because then we can have a nice date with lots of Pasta!"

Now it was Ludwig's turn to be surprised. "Wait- now?"

"Yes, of course! I told Ludwig that I love him and Ludwig loves me – wait, no. I forgot to ask! Do you love me, Ludwig?"

He could very much feel how his face went crimson red and he turned away from the Italian who rested his chin against the chest of the German and was now staring at him with those _beautiful_ brown eyes and the white and definitely soft skin on his cheeks had a light fade of red upon it.

He couldn't answer. There were no words left in his mind so he let his body act for once. Slowly he bent down and cupped the Italian's face with his large hands, caressing the really soft skin gently. Then he placed a light kiss on the other's forehead. His lips were almost not touching, gazing over the features of the other as he went down the nose, breathing warm air against the creamy skin until he finally found those soft lips. He lingered there a second longer to make it more than just a kiss, but a _kiss _instead.

Then he pulled away to study the other's face. Feliciano's eyes were closed and his lips were slightly opened, the rosy cheeks made his features soft and…

Ludwig blushed again and covered his face in his hands, turning away from the Italian.

A moment there was silence. Then he felt gentle hands taking his own and removing them from his face.

"I take that as a yes", Feliciano said after a moment. He squeezed Ludwig's hands, next he turned around and headed towards the door.

"I think Ludwig has a lot of work left to do and he probably needs some time alone so I'll just call later in the evening, ok?"

Ludwig just nodded and said goodbye to Feliciano with a silent "Auf Wiedersehen."

"Arrivederci, Ludwig."

* * *

"Ve, I missed cuddling with Ludwig a lot!", cheered Feliciano and moved closer to the German's body. The other smiled and continued to stroke the red-brown locks of his Liebling.

But suddenly the Italian stiffened and stared at the wall.

"Is there something wrong, Feliciano?", asked Ludwig, watching the other with concern.

"That… that picture…"

"It's nice, isn't it? I found in on my attic and it reminded me a lot of you. So I decided to hang it up somewhere. I don't know who made it, though…"

"It's me."

"You made it?", Ludwig asked irritated.

"No. The person on the picture. That's me."

Ludwig frowned. "But that's a girl…"

"I used to wear these clothes when I was with Austria and… and… _Holy Roman Empire._"

At the sound of those three words pictures started buzzing through his head with incredibly fast speed. He couldn't grab any of them but there was this _feeling _and the dreams he used to have and then a girl with an apron and beautiful brown eyes and rosy cheeks and soft mushy lips-

"_Heiliges Römisches Reich…_"

"Si", the Italian answered, unaware of the troubles the German had. "You remember me a lot of him. He used to blush the same way you do.", he giggled.

Ludwig laid back and pulled Feliciano with him, pressed a kiss on the other's forehead. He felt like he had to speak with his brother soon. It seemed like there were a few questions to be asked. And answered.

* * *

"_Italy" - his hoarse voice whispered the name, it echoed in his head, like it would give him hold, like it was the only thing that made him going on._

_Th__ey would meet again. _

_For sure._

- owari


End file.
